Archives for March, 2012

Having been back in Harrisonburg for almost two whole days, I’ve decided it’s time to hit the road again. I’ll be leaving for Atlanta in a few hours, to attend the biannual Gathering for Gardner conference. I’ll be back on Sunday. See you then!

It was cold, and it was pouring rain for much of the afternoon, but the rally was a huge success nevertheless. The official estimate from the Park’s Department was 20,000, which seems about right to me. I’m not generally a real social person, and I’m not much of a joiner. But given that I live…

I spent the day at the big Reason Rally on the National Mall. I’d say it was a huge success! According to rally host Paul Provenza, the official estimate from the Parks Department was 20,000 people. Not too shabby, especially considering that it was cold and very rainy all day. I’m sticking around for the…

Jimmy Carter has a new book out about the Bible. He discusses it in this short interview over at HuffPo. He takes a straightforward approach to dealing with morally or scientifically troubling passages:

Apparently there’s a rally coming up in Washington DC: The Reason Rally is an event sponsored by many of the country’s largest and most influential secular organizations. It will be free to attend and will take place in Washington, D.C. on March 24th, 2012 from 10:00AM – 6:00PM at the National Mall. There will be…

This article is so powerful that it pretty much defies comment. It is a first-person account of a pregnant woman in Texas who learned that her son would be born with horrible, painful birth defects, if he survived long enough to be born at all. Thanks to the vile misogynists who run the state, she…

Back in October, philosopher Michael Lynch published thie essay in The New York Times He was discussing the problem of finding an epistemic justification for our confidence in science. A few days ago The Times continued the discussion with this exchange between Lynch and physicist Alan Sokal. The two pieces together are rather long. There…

I watched HBO’s film Game Change tonight, about the rise and fall of Sarah Palin in the 2008 presidential race. It was pretty good! Which is to say that it makes Palin look pretty bad. As presented in the film, Palin is not merely uninterested in filling the gaps in her understanding of domestic and…

Continuing with the process of getting caught up on things I should have blogged about a while ago, let’s take a look at this bizarre article from Bryan Appleyard, published in The Guardian. It is a contribution to a familiar genre, in which the New Atheists are criticized for being so mean and nasty: Two…

I’m way behind on this, since other bloggers have already piled on, but I wanted to comment on this essay by Alain de Botton. Here’s how it opens: Probably the most boring question you can ask about religion is whether or not the whole thing is “true.” Unfortunately, recent public discussions on religion have focused…

The electronic version of Among the Creationists is now available! Yay! Click here for the Kindle version. Click here for the Nook version. The print version will be available soon. Buy it, read it, and let me know what you think!

Over at HuffPo, paleontologist Robert Asher serves up the standard cliches about reconciling science and religion: For many theists, even if they would phrase it differently, “religion” requires a deity who leaves behind evidence in a similar fashion as a human being might do, like Santa Claus not finishing his cookies or a toga-clad Charlton…